Vardø (Northern Sami; Várggát, Kven: Vuorea, Finnish: Vuoreija)
is a municipality in Finnmark. As of 1 January 2011, there were
2,111 inhabitants in the municipality. The municipality borders
Båtsfjord in the northwest and Vadsø in the southwest, and in the
sea towards Sør-Varanger in the south and Russia in the southeast
(gorodskoje poselenije Petsjenga in Petsjenga district in Murmansk
oblast).
The administration center in the municipality is
Vardø, which is located on Vardøya and is the largest settlement in
the municipality, (1,800 inhabitants on 1 January 2020). Other
populated hamlets include the municipality's second settlement
Kiberg (202 inhabitants), Komagvær, Kramvik, Smelror, Svartnes and
Persfjord. Together with Hammerfest, Vardø is the oldest town in
northern Norway as they gained city status at the same time in 1789.
Vardø town is Finnmark county's millennium town. Vardø is Finnmark's
oldest fishing village. Vardø is known as the Pomor capital when the
city in the 19th century was a center of trade with Russia.
In the oldest written mentions of the place / island from the 14th century, it is mentioned as "Vargøy"; later it was mentioned as Vǫrð (u) øy, connected to the Norse varða, varde. It is called "Vardeøen" and "Vaarødenn" in the 16th century. The cairn in question has probably stood on Vårberget and may be connected to Vardøhus fortress.
The warmest summer month in Vardø, July, has an average temperature for the years 1961–1990 of +9.2 ° C. In other words, Vardø has an Arctic climate, and in this way one can point to the fact that Vardø does not have trees (with the exception of a roe tree that is packed against the cold before each winter). It can also be said that Vardø does not have a climatologically defined summer, but that does not mean that it cannot get hot there. In this way, the maximum temperature in Vardø was measured at +27 ° C on 7 July 1987. The average temperature is 1.3 ° C.